The Last Refrain
by Zaraph
Summary: Jareth's music has haunted Sarah ever since she left the Labryinth, inspiring her to become a composer. But five years after her journey to the Labyrinth, she begins to realize just exactly how much of a hold on her the music has.
1. Chapter 1: Echo of a Song

_The Last Refrain came about sometime after I had been reading some old Irish fairytales, particularly bits about the music of the faeries and how it could ensnare those that listened to it. This led me to thinking about Jareth's songs, and if he was fae, wouldn't they have the same effect on Sarah as faerie music is supposed to?_

_This is to be read as a sequel story to Labyrinth._

Disclaimer: Sarah, Jareth, and the rest of the creatures of the Labyrinth do not belong to me. They belong to Jim Henson and whoever else may have created them.

**The Last Refrain**

_Chapter One: Echo of a Song  
_

* * *

**  
**

She would never forget that song.

It still played in her head long after she had left him. A sparkling music-box tune that danced across her daydreams and echoed in her ears while she was asleep.

She would never forget his voice, either. His beautiful and aching voice promising her sunlight, happiness, and undying love.

That was probably one of the reasons why she hadn't decided on a singer yet. Writing the tune itself had been easy enough (the song had burned from her memory like wildfire, engraving itself on crisp white paper).

But she could not find the right voice.

The directors had given her one more week to search for a singer and then they would scrap all her efforts and pick one themselves.

They did not know the crystalline beauty that had graced his song, the undeniable truth that he had sung to her.

She knew.

She remembered.

* * *

Aidan was twenty-four and a musician; a singer of great reputation down in the world of college clubs and karaoke. He was la vie Boheme personified- his smile, grace, and clothes all reeked of it. Girls saw it and loved him. 

He was also an arrogant, pretentious asshole. Sometimes he meant to be, sometimes he didn't, but he always was regardless of his intention. This was something the rocker chicks with their wild hairdos noticed less frequently about him, and often those that did notice were willing to forgive him; shrug his arrogance off as a side effect of his fame.

* * *

Sarah Williams did not like Aidan when she first met him. It was an instant and firm dislike, a recognition of all the qualities in him that made him disagreeable. 

He also reminded her of somebody, a tall blonde person who had walked the way Aidan did, with unthinking confidence that bordered on arrogance. But she didn't want to think about _him_, not any more than she had to.

"So. You're Aidan Walker, then?" Sarah looked up at the boy, and he grinned wolfishly.

"Yeah. You're Sarah Williams. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand and she took it, noticing that his arrogance leaked into his handshake. He gripped her hand in such an attitude that clearly said _I am better than you, and there's nothing you can do about it._

Sarah sighed inwardly. She almost hoped that he wouldn't be the one with the voice, if it meant that she wouldn't have to deal with him.

"So, Aidan, I hear you're something of a phenomena in the Indie scene."

"Yep." He grinned carelessly. "I would say that."

Another sigh. "Well then, I'm going to play our audition song for you, and once you feel you're familiar enough with it I'll have you sing it for me. Here's a copy of the sheet music, complete with lyrics." She tossed him a bunch of paper, and he caught it easily.

"Ready?"

He nodded to her, and she pressed play on the CD player.

As the first notes seeped out of the speakers to flood the room something strange flickered across Aidan's face. Sarah wasn't sure what it was, a twitch of the mouth or a widening of the eyes, and it happened so quickly she thought she might have imagined it.

Finally the music stopped, and he reached out and grabbed Sarah's hand before she could replay it.

"I've got it. I'll sing now."

Sarah gave him a skeptical look and shrugged, then skipped ahead to the instrumental version of the song. As she did this she watched the boy out of the corner of her eye curiously.

She pushed play.

Aidan closed his eyes, then opened his mouth and _sang_.

Sarah had known that Aidan was supposed to be a sort of legend in the Indie scene. She knew he was supposed to have a gorgeous voice that well accompanied his tousled brown hair and bright green eyes.

But still, his attitude had just about made Sarah decide to refuse him the position he was trying out for, regardless of whether he deserved it or not.

That was before he started to sing.

His voice was raw, vibrant, and emotional; and Sarah could not help but let out a gasp as it first rang out.

It was so... so much like _his_ that it was hard- so hard-

_The memory of his piercing eyes, of his hand on her, gently leading her across the ballroom. He began to sing softly to her, his voice somehow clear against the raucousness of the other dancers._

"There's such a fooled heart..."

Sarah blinked and abruptly came back to reality. He was gone, Aidan was there, still singing.

She shook her head, driving the memories away. She did not know why she kept thinking of him, he had terrified her so much as a child...

A while ago she decided that her memories of him were a result of his strong and distinctive personality. Who could possibly walk away unscathed after meeting from someone like him?

A small part of her whispered that this was only half of the answer, but Sarah had been ignoring that voice for years and wasn't about to start listening to it now.

Finally the song was over, finally Aidan stopped singing. He looked at Sarah, and she at him.

"Well? What did you think?"

"That was... that was very good, Aidan."

Aidan looked into Sarah's eyes with his own intense green ones, and for a moment she stared back at him silently.

_There is something odd about this boy. Something almost wrong._

Then Sarah shrugged off those thoughts, accounting them to simple paranoia. She gave Aidan a strained smile.

"Well, I guess that means we'll have you as the singer, then. Come back to the studio at eleven A.M. tomorrow and I'll fill you in on what your schedule is."

Aidan blinked, breaking his unnerving stare.

"See you tomorrow."

* * *

_"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave."_

_His eyes pleaded with her, begged her to listen to him._

_But she would not. He was the villain, she the pristine heroine, and they both must play their roles to the finish. _

_It was a lot like a dance. Their conversation was structured into a series of ritualized steps that all fit together like pieces of a puzzle. First she would say this, and he would reply with temptation, which she would ignore and respond with the right words, the proper words._

_And then finally the last words came to her lips, the ending ones. After she said them there would be nothing he could do to keep her, he would be powerless and bend to her wishes._

_But this time the words stopped at her lips, and as Sarah opened her mouth she found she could not speak._

_Then the tones of the clock echoed in her ears; once, thrice, thirteen times, and everything was swallowed in darkness._

Sarah gasped and sat bolt upright in her bed.

She had been having nightmares about the Labyrinth for the past two weeks, dreams of being hopelessly lost, of things chasing her, and of being forgotten forever deep inside an oubliette. But she had never before had this dream, a dream of the final confrontation gone awry.

Sarah wasn't sure why the nightmares had started again, after having left her in peace for almost four years. She was twenty now, and hadn't had a nightmare about the Underground since she was seventeen.

And now, intermingled with the nightmares she would have an odd dream that she could scarely remember in the morning, but yet seemed to always be the same. Sarah would wake up with a half-remembered haze of whispered words and snatches of song floating through her mind, always the same words and always the same music.

Sarah would push this dream out of memory as it was to obscure and vague to really care about, and the nightmares always loomed much larger in her memory.

Yet despite her efforts to forget the half-dream, Sarah would inevitably find her self humming bits of the song in the dream the next day. It wasn't a song she recognized, not one he had sung to her.

But still it stuck in her memory, and slowly began to haunt and torment her as much as the nightmares did.

* * *

_A note: I really have no idea how auditions are held for singing parts in movies, so let's just pretend for now something like the somewhere-above happens. _

_Thanks for reading, and comments are always very much appreciated._


	2. Chapter 2: Dancing and Dreamscapes

Thanks to all of you who have reviewed so far! I'm very excited about writing this fic, so I hope you continue to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

_Chapter Two: Dancing and Dreamscapes  
_

* * *

_Do you dream of pretty things?_

_Do you dream of butterflies and birds, of cool green grass and sunlight?_

_Or do you dream of music that twines around your feet and legs and makes you dance? Do you dream of masked faces and fluttering laughter and spinning around a ballroom until you collapse? Of dancing until your feet ache and your body and mind are weary, but you keep on spinning and twirling and pass from partner to partner because you cannot stop?_

_Tell me._

_What do you dream of, Sarah?_

Sarah woke up with a sudden gasp of breath, a sharp intake of cold morning air.

It was five in the morning, and a chorus of birds were twittering outside Sarah's bedroom window, chattering about the weather and food and other small bird-problems. The sun was breaking over the horizon beautifully, shooting rays of dawn across the receding night.

But Sarah's mind was not on the birds, or the pretty sunrise. A half-remembered dream was flitting through her head, filling her memory with bits of songs and laughter and the echo of a voice like black velvet whispering in her ear.

_What do you dream of, Sarah?_

_What do I dream of? I dream of dancing and aching feet and songs that capture me in their melodies and their madness and will not let me go. I dream of pretty faces obscured by masks and glitter, I dream of laughing people and the snapping of fans._

When it first appeared, Sarah had thought that her now reoccurring dream had been of the enchanted dreamscape she had encountered in the Labyrinth- a dream of a dream. But after this newest dream she was not so sure. There was something different about this dream, something sinisterly strange and haunting.

And that voice- smooth and dangerous, tempting her with every syllable it spoke. It had never called to her before it any dream.

She knew whose voice it was. She could recognize that voice anywhere, for that taunting and half-mad creature was never far from her mind, his imprint was left on her forever, no matter how much she would deny it. And he haunted her dreams constantly

But never before had he spoken to her in dreams. Usually all she would see of him was a glimpse out of the corner of her eye of a tall and unearthly figure, who would disappear soon after she saw him.

Sarah shook her head. Now was no time to be musing over these things. It was Monday, and she had to be at work soon.

She got out of bed, almost tripping over her pair of worn-out slippers, and made her way to the shower.

* * *

"Hey Sarah." 

Aidan's grin was quick and lopsided, making him look younger and more innocent than he actually was.

"Hello Aidan. Listen, I can't really talk to you right now, I've got to go work on the orchestral script, but I was wondering if you've had time to work on the ballroom song yet? I know you were booked to get into the studio yesterday, but somebody told me they were having problems with the wiring and I-"

Aidan waved his hand.

"It's fine, all taken care of. Nothing to worry about." He wore carelessness as casually as clothing, and Sarah bristled a bit at his attitude.

_Calm down, Sarah. He's just a kid, and there's no reason for you to snap at him just because you haven't gotten enough sleep lately._

"Well. Good then. Just as long as the recording gets done." Sarah gave Aidan a plastic smile and brushed by him into her office, shutting the door behind her.

As soon as Sarah sat down she grabbed a notebook of manuscript paper, and started scribbling in it furiously. She had to write down this song she kept hearing in her dreams. It was so beautiful, so alluring, and would fit in so well with the film.

Three hours later Aidan knocked on Sarah's office door. When no answer came, he walked in to find Sarah slumped on her desk, her head in her hands.

"Is something wrong?"

"What?" Sarah jerked herself upright, and looked up at Aidan. Her eyes were shot with red like she had been crying.

A flicker of alarm crossed Aidan's face, and then disappeared.

"Is something wrong? You look upset."

"No, it's fine. It's just..." Sarah waved her hand in the air, dismissing her problems.

"It's nothing."

"Are you sure? You don't look so good."

Sarah inwardly wondered over the fact that Aidan was being so concerned, or at least acting like he was concerned.

"I'm fine, Aidan. Now, was there something you wanted?"

"One of the tech guys wanted me to come get you. He said he needed to talk to you about background track of a song, said he wasn't sure what you wanted to do with it."

"Okay. Tell him I'll be right there."

Aidan nodded and left the room. As soon as he left, Sarah slumped back down into her former dejected position.

She could not write the music down.

She didn't know why, but she _couldn't_. The melody kept slipping between her fingers like a handful of water, and no matter how much she tried she could not keep the music in her head long enough to write it down.

Sarah stared despondently at her manuscript paper. It was a mess of eraser marks and scribbled notes, and she had even worn a hole into one section of the paper because she had erased the notes there so much.

A knock on her door and Aidan's muffled voice suddenly broke Sarah out of her reverie.

"What was that?"

"Just that the tech guy is getting kind of annoyed that you aren't there yet."

Sarah sighed.

"I'm coming."

* * *

It was the end of the day, and Sarah was so happy. Now she could go home and sink into her bed, and let sleep melt away the heavy weariness that had followed her around today. She stood outside her office, locking her door and thinking cheerful thoughts. 

A voice unexpectedly came from behind her.

"Do you want to go out to dinner with me?"

"What?" Sarah turned, surprised, to find the green-eyed Aidan standing behind her.

Aidan grinned.

"Do you want to go out to dinner with me? I know this really awesome cafe that's open 'till around two A.M., and they often have live music there."

Sarah looked at Aidan, slightly confused. She was very tired and frustrated with herself, and because of this the meaning of what Aidan was saying didn't fully sink in until she went over his words several times in her head.

"Ummm. Not tonight. I'm really tired and need to sleep, especially since I have a meeting at seven in the morning tomorrow."

Aidan gave Sarah another wolfish grin.

"Not tonight? Does this mean another night is a possibility?"

Sarah blinked.

"Maybe? I don't know. I can't think right now."

Aidan laughed.

"I can tell. Well then, Sarah. I'll see you tomorrow."

She waved to him and he caught her hand, kissed it, and left the room before she could protest.

* * *

_Her feet ached._

_The cream-colored, heavily brocaded dress was growing heavy. Each time she spun she felt like the weight of the skirts would tip her over._

_But her partner caught her before she could, and spun her around again._

_Then the song changed and everyone switched partners. But the spinning hypnotic dance did not change, did not stop._

_Behind the rhythmic clatter of feet and the muted voices of those around her, she could hear the music. Was it a violin or a viola that was playing? And the other instrument wasn't exactly like a flute, but not exactly like anything else either._

_Candlelight flickered and made things surreal. People seemed to stretch and grow in the spaces between light and shadow, their appearances changing into things... less human. Eyes glittered, teeth grew sharp, and faces grew angular and alien._

_Then she saw him. His clothes were black that night, and stitched with silver._

_His eyes met hers and time stopped._

Sarah's eyes flew open.

She lay in her bed for several moments, trying to calm down. Her breathing was labored, and she wasn't quite sure why. The dream that night had been creepy, yes, but not outright scary. She supposed her racing heart and heavy breathing was probably due to the intensity of the dream, if nothing else.

Her eyes drifted to the alarm clock by the bed. It was five o'clock. Her alarm would ring in a half hour.

But Sarah did not think she could fall asleep again, so she got out of bed and stuck her feet in her slippers. A sudden spot of coldness on her foot made her pause on her way to the shower and examine one of her slippers.

A hole had been worn into the bottom of her right shoe. It was a small hole, just big enough to let the coldness of the wooden floor seep into her foot.

_That's odd. I must've ripped it on something._

Sarah shrugged and continued to her bathroom.

* * *

_Once again, any and all input on this story is appreciated. I really want to know what you guys think of it._

_Thanks much_

_-Zaraph_


End file.
